It's time, once again, to check in on the king of uranium.
For the third quarter, Cameco's
Honing in on uranium, higher unit costs continue to be driven by spot market purchases that Cameco is making for trading purposes. I continue to view this activity as a bullish sign. Sales volume was off slightly from last quarter, but customer offtake is very lumpy in this business. Mined production, meanwhile, was up big. Cameco cranked out 5.6 million pounds, compared to 3.8 million last quarter, and is on target for 20 million pounds of production for the full year.
In the very short term, the troubles at BHP Billiton's
As with oil, gold, and other asset prices, uranium would of course tend to benefit from ongoing dollar weakness. The company cited analyst estimates of a $50 to $70 long-term contract level, and it agrees with that range.
On the exploration and development front, Cameco has begun confirmation drilling at Kintyre, the Australian asset picked up from Rio Tinto